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Saturday, March 25, 2017

Annunciation: Exalting Those of Low Degree

In most Orthodox churches, the image of the
Mother of God towers over us—sometimes literally, as her icon fills the upper
apse of the church temple, proclaiming there how she united heaven and earth by
her willing assent to the Incarnation of the divine Messiah.In all her icons she is a majestic figure—regal,
composed, serene, the Queen of Heaven.Many icons of the Annunciation portray her as seated on a throne, and
with a small footstool, as befits royalty.In all her images, she is a person of power.

This
is as it should be, since icons portray the eschatological reality, and present
not a naturalistic perspective, but a heavenly, hieratic one.An icon is not a painted photo or a portrait,
but a proclamation of the person’s heavenly glory.Thus it is appropriate that Mary of Nazareth
be presented as the Queen of Heaven, exalted by God to a place more honourable
than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim.

But
these heavenly images of her present power should not blind us to the low
degree and powerlessness that she had while she lived and walked in
Palestine.At the time of the
Annunciation, Mary was not a person of power, but a simple peasant girl in a
small town in Galilee, far from the halls of the mighty down south in Jerusalem
and further afield in Rome, and unconnected with the movers and shakers of the
world.It would be hard to exaggerate
her powerlessness as far as this world was concerned.She was a member of a despised race, the
Jews, a nation which had lost the last bit of its national sovereignty when the
Romans took over in 63 B.C.In a world
which respected age, she was young; in a culture which valued marriage, she was
single; in a society which revered wealth, she was poor.She lived in Galilee, derisively called
“Galilee of the Gentiles” by those in Judea, and the town of Nazareth was
looked down upon even by others in Galilee.“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” was a proverbial taunt uttered
by Jews in neighbouring Cana (Jn. 1:46).And we must remember that at the time of the Annunciation she was of the
usual marriageable age—that is, about thirteen years old.

Later
loving devotion would adorn her story with other details, like tinsel on a
beloved Christmas tree.The so-called Protoevangelium of James, written in the
second century as a kind of devotional attempt to fill in the blanks of her
life, supplies a number of biographical details not strictly historical.But the sober history of the Gospel preserves
a picture of what we might expect—a young girl, unknown and poor, coming face
to face one day with the eternal and the incalculable.Luke’s Gospel presents her as a young girl
“betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph”, and when the angel Gabriel informed
her that she had been chosen to bear the Messiah and was about to conceive Him,
she was naturally “greatly troubled” and asked to know how this was possible,
since she had “never known a man” (Lk. 1:27f). When it came time to offer the sacrifice
required from those who had given birth, she and Joseph offered “the sacrifice
of the poor”—two young pigeons (Lev. 12:8, Lk. 2:24). Neither does Matthew’s Gospel present her as a
celebrity: when Joseph receives news of
her pregnancy he is minded to divorce her quietly (Mt. 1:18f).In neither of these accounts is Mary
presented as famous or rich and powerful.And later in our Lord’s ministry, when people stumbled at His claims,
they invoked His family with no suggestion that they were special:“Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his
mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and
Judas?And are not all his sisters with
us?Where then did this man get all
this?” (Mt. 13:55f).It is clear enough
from the Gospel records that Mary was not considered a celebrity by the world
around her.

This
is her greatest boast, for her “low degree” was rooted in her invincible
humility.She herself said it first and
best:God’s plan was to scatter the
proud in the imagination of their hearts, to put down the mighty from their
thrones, and to exalt those of low degree (Lk. 1:51f).Her Son echoed His Mother:“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk. 18:14).Mary was humble, of low degree, powerless in
this age.And because of this, God
exalted her, making her honourable and powerful—indeed, more honourable than the
cherubim, and reigning with her Son in heaven:“The Queen stood at your right side, arrayed in golden robes all
glorious” (Ps. 45:9).

Her
exaltation from low degree was the first of many such exaltations.We find this divine delight in exalting the
humble playing like a theme-song throughout the New Testament.“God chose what is foolish in the world to
shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God
chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to
nullify things that are” (1 Cor. 1:27f).“Has not God has chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in
faith and heirs of the Kingdom?” (James 2:5).The world utterly misunderstands the nature of true greatness, and
equates greatness with outward strength and self-assertion.In the world, the one in first place is the
one who rules, who exerts his will, who makes a big splash.God overturns all this, for in His Kingdom
the one in first place will be the one who serves as the slave of all (Mk.
10:44).It is the humble, and self-effacing,
and powerless servant who is truly great.God’s Kingdom inaugurates a revolution, and the revolution began with
the Annunciation.

Mary
is an image of the Church, and her exaltation prophesies and prefigures
ours.It is important therefore that we
see and appreciate her humble estate and her powerlessness during her life, for
they form the basis for her exaltation after her death.It is right that our icons dress her in the
robes of royalty and place her upon a throne, for these images simply
acknowledge in art what God has done for her in heaven.But as we venerate these images, let us not fail
to appreciate the revolution they portray:that God took a humble, young girl from a small town, and exalted her to
a place unmatched in the cosmos or the Kingdom.He exalted her who was of low degree, so that we and all generations may
see His work, and call her blessed.

2 comments:

It should be noted that the Theotokos is portrayed in the icons in the garb of a peasant girl. That this is so can be seen by the fact that Byzantine aristocratic women are shown in the icons with jewelry and braided hair. Her secular social status on the icons of the Annunciation is further highlighted by the fact that She is often shown holding a spindle, something that a queen, princess, or duchess would never be shown holding. Do a quick Google image search on icons of Ss. Theodora, Helena (mother of Constantine), Olga, Genevieve; any other genteel lady who's been canonized. In the icons they get braids, jewelry, sometimes a crown, and ornate dress. None of which are placed on the Theotokos in Her icons.

So, the icons actually make the point your making. The peasant girl with a spindle gets to sit on a throne while being addressed by an angel.

Granted that the Theotokos is not shown with braids, jewelry or a crown (which in the icons of Theodora and company express their historical status), most peasant girls in Galilee did not wear the rich red maphorion with the gold stars or the red shoes, though these might have been more normally worn by Byzantine women. The detail of the spindle, a normal part of domestic life of women in those days, is there because it formed a part of the narrative found in the Proto-evangelium. It seems as if the icon transposes Mary into the cultural context of Byzantium, as well as expressing her exalted role as the Mother of God.

Fr. Lawrence on Ancient Faith:

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Fr. L. at oca.org

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Father Lawrence Farley holds an M.Div.from Wycliffe College, Toronto School of Theology, and also completed a Certificate program at St. Tikhon's Seminary.

Since 1987 he has served as the pastor of St. Herman's Orthodox Church, OCA (Archdiocese of Canada) in Langley BC. Several priests, deacons, and lay members of new missions have emerged from the membership of St. Herman's.